MONTREAL — Several hundred people shouted “refugees welcome!” in Creole as they gathered outside Montreal’s Olympic Stadium on Sunday to show support for the waves of asylum-seekers crossing the border from the United States.

Members of the group stood on a hill near the entrance to the stadium, waving signs and balloons and chanting messages of welcome.

“We are here with them, to support them and to help them establish themselves,” organizer Serge Bouchereau told the crowd through a megaphone.

“This is a vast, rich country that can welcome many, many people who are in bad situations and can’t stay in their own countries.”

The Olympic Stadium is one of several venues that has been transformed into a temporary shelter to accommodate some of the refugee-claimants, whose numbers have soared in recent weeks.

The City of Montreal says between 250 and 300 people are now crossing the Canada-United States border to seek asylum every day, up from 50 per day in the first half of July.

Many of those crossing the border, like 32-year-old Adline Tidas, are of Haitian descent.

In the United States, the Trump administration is considering ending a program that granted Haitians so-called “temporary protected status” following the massive earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010.

Tidas said she had been living in Ft. Lauderdale since 2009 but left the United States last week because she feared being sent back to her home country.

“The government gave an extension of eight months, and I don’t want to go back to Haiti,” she said in an interview near the stadium.

The Government of Canada discourages people from entering Canada outside of designated ports of entry. Learn more: https://t.co/UsR5As6EMD